


Home Front

by Lionheart39



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:41:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25551454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lionheart39/pseuds/Lionheart39
Summary: The families left behind don't have it easy!
Relationships: Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart/Doris Lethbridge-Stewart
Kudos: 1





	Home Front

**Author's Note:**

> Having just read the Dr Who novel of Battlefield, I love the glimpses of Doris character as she waits for and worries about her husband!

Doris stood watching the helicopter fade to a dot in the distance. She shivered, even though the day was hot! The knot of fear that had been building in her stomach ever since Alistair had gone to change into his uniform, she thought would be a permanent fixture until he came home.

Why did the army always have to take her happiness from her? She had lost Alistair once when the army had sent him abroad for several years and they had lost contact. She had then met and married George, another soldier, and within two years he had been killed in a bomb blast in Northern Ireland. When she thought she would never have anyone to love, Alistair had come back into her life. And now...

Doris sighed, closed her eyes and decided she needed to do something to stop herself brooding.

Alistair called just before 9pm he was waiting to go into a briefing at the M O D. 

“Hi love, I've just arrived at the M O D. The briefing starts in ten minutes! I wanted to give you a quick call! How are you?”

Doris’s voice was brittle with forced cheerfulness, “Oh, as you'd expect, love. I've been keeping busy. I’ve baked your favourite cake! So make sure you get back to enjoy it!” she said her voice more shaky then she wanted it to be.

Alistair winced hearing it. He rubbed a hand over his eyes. He knew he was being terribly unfair to Doris. He was an old man, he should walk back out of the door behind him and go back to her.

“How was the flight?” she asked when he hadn’t said anything. She had got her voice under control.

“Not bad, the young lady is a good pilot! Never had a lady pilot before!” he said glad to hear she was doing her best to put a brave face on things.

Doris laughed.

“Is there much damage in the garden from the prop wash?” he asked concerned. 

“Some, but it gave me something to do sorting it out!” she paused, “Alistair, you will take care won't you? I want you back home with me as soon as possible! I couldn't stand it if I lost you too!”

“Of course I'll be careful! I always have been. Like I said, I'll sort this out and be home in no time!” he told her using his most reassuring voice. “This meeting won't be finished until the early hours. I'll ring you again just as soon as I can!” 

He tried to keep the conversation light. He asked about her plans and had assured her again that he would take care. 

“Look after yourself Alistair! I love you and miss you!” she said.

The sentiment in her voice dispelled any self doubt he had ever harboured about being a person who couldn't be loved. That blasted trick cyclist they had sent him to after that incident in 1977 was a fool!

“I may not tell you often enough, Doris, but I love you more then you'll ever know! I always have! Please don't ever forget that!” he said with feeling.

Doris caught her breath, she wished she had a recording of this conversation. She knew he loved her, but it wasn't something he ever articulated!

“When I get back, let’s go to Paris for a few days!” he suggested. “You look into where you want to stay and what you want to do while we are there!”

Doris knew he was trying to take her mind off worrying, the trouble was the more he tried the worse she felt!

She heard someone speaking to him.

“Got to go!” he said reluctantly. “Love you! Sleep well!”

“Love you too!” she whispered as the phone clicked and she heard the dialling tone. 

Doris sighed deeply as she collected the gardening equipment from the shed the next morning. She hadn't slept well, she never did if he wasn't there. Last night she had hardly slept at all. She had cuddled up to his pillow but it hadn't helped. At four in the morning she had given up trying to sleep. Doris had gone to her study and tried to take her mind off him by reading through reviews of Parisian hotels.

The radio was on so she could listen to Woman’s Hour while she planted out some bulbs. Her head shot up when she heard the 10 am news round up. The Headline was about UNIT casualties at the Carbury incident. Doris snatched up the phone that was on the grass next to her. She had a dreadful feeling that Alistair would be amongst those injured, or perhaps even.... She stopped, she wouldn't let herself think that. 

“Get a grip!” she muttered to herself as she dialled the number he had left!

After a lot a fruitless effort she had to settle for leaving a message. And with a frustrated sigh got back to her work in the garden.

At lunch time she wondered into the kitchen and automatically filled the kettle with enough water for two people and took both their mugs down from the cupboard. She looked at Alistair’s mug, sighed and put it back. The phone rang and she snatched it up!

It wasn't often that Doris Lethbridge-Stewart used the ‘F word’. The double glazing salesman, who had made the mistake of calling their number today, would never have believed that, given the fluency of its use in their 20 seconds of one sided conversation before the phone had been slammed down on him!

Doris drank her tea, but put the sandwich she had made for her lunch into the fridge untouched. She wasn't hungry.

She turned on the portable TV in the kitchen for the 1 pm news.

The Secretary General of the UN has denied reports of casualties amongst UNIT troops, at the incident at Carbury,” the reporter was saying!

Doris’s heart froze in her chest! She knew a cover up when she heard one.

Once again Doris was dialling the number he had left, and once again she was told the Brigadier wasn't at HQ. Twenty minutes of insisting someone find him got her to the same position as last time, and she left another message to let him know she had called.

“Get a grip Doris!” she told herself. “You are not the hysterical type!”

She watched Neighbour's half heartedly. The Australian soap that centred around the lives of a couple of dozen characters, which normally enthralled her to the point that she would spend most of the afternoon discussing it with a rather bemused, and slightly amused, Alistair just didn't interest her at all today. 

She knew Alistair didn't understand her fascination with these soaps. She had once asked him why he couldn't get interested in the soap operas she loved and he had explained that they were just so artificial. 

“Maybe I've just seen too much in real life to be able to believe in those stories! Real life isn't like that! But if you enjoy them love, you watch them!” he had said indulgently. 

At dinner time she heated a tin of soup and got the sandwich from the fridge. She knew she didn't want them, but she ate them all the same.

Why had he gone? Why Alistair, couldn't they have found someone else, someone younger, someone she didn't love! She just wanted UNIT to leave them in peace, he was supposed to be retired.

Doris tried ringing the number again, but this time just got a fault message. She went to his desk looked up the number for John Sudbury. Not only was he a permanent secretary in the M O D but was, more importantly, an old friend of both of them!

She was slightly mollified when John had assured her that lack of contact was probably due to the atmospheric interference that was hampering communications. They were working to secure landlines to the area and he gave her a new number to call in the morning. A number that would get her straight through to the incident HQ.

“Doris, try not to worry, he is only there in an advisory capacity! Brigadier Bambera is in charge of the front line stuff! I doubt she'll let Alistair steal her glory!”

Yes, he was too old for all that front line stuff. The trouble was she didn't think Alistair realised that! And no one, not even her, had ever been able to stop Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart doing what he thought was right! Blast him!

She went for a soak in the bath and then to bed, after taking two of the sleeping tablets from the bathroom cabinet.

She made herself wait until 11 am the next morning before she called the number John Sudbury had given her!

“Mrs Lethbridge-Stewart?” a voice asked.

“Yes, yes, I am still here!” she snapped! Then regretted it, it wasn't the young mans fault he was just doing his job.

“I'm putting you through to the forward command post Ma'am!”

What was Alistair doing at the forward command post? Doris knew enough of the army to know that would mean he was very close to the front line! 

Since their marriage he had said no to many attempts to get him involved in UNIT business. When he had been at that school, with what they thought as some sort of a breakdown, they had left him in peace. But when they discovered it had been the result of some accidental time anomaly and he was now his old self again, they kept trying to involve him in their work. Since they had got together he had said no every time. He had even said no, this time, until the Secretary General had told her to tell him that the Doctor was back! The Doctor, who the hell was this man, and why did his name bring that worrying look of joy and anticipation of adventure to Alistair’s face!

Doris was losing her cool once again, this was her third time trying to speak to Alistair. She found herself being put through to the same young woman she had spoken to twice already in the last two days.

“Hello, Mrs Lethbridge-Stewart, I'm sorry but the Brigadier isn't here!”

“Well where is he?” Doris demanded. “They keep putting me through to you! Have you let him know I've been trying to contact him?”

There was no reply from the young woman.

“You haven't seen him have you..? He's in the field, isn't he?” Doris stated anger and fear battling each other for her attention.

“I don't know where he is Mrs Lethbridge-Stewart, but I will try to locate him and when I do I will pass on your message! Is there anything special you want me to tell him?”

“Tell him I lov...” she knew he would be appalled to have a junior pass that message on. Anyway he knew that! “Tell him he hasn't finished the garden yet!” 

“I will, Ma'am, and I will ring you as soon as I find out anything,” the young woman had said sympathetically. 

Doris wondered if the young woman had someone she cared about fighting on the frontline.

She headed towards the door, to go to the kitchen. She realised she'd had nothing to eat today, she hadn't been able to face anything other then a cup of tea at breakfast. As she got to the door she stopped and returned to collect the cordless phone and put it in her pocket.

The rest of the day dragged by, and still no phone call. She checked the phone was still charged for the tenth time, and even quickly checked the dialling tone was there. All the time the knot of fear in her stomach was getting worse.

She was watching the 9 o'clock news. The strange happenings in Carbury were the main item! Doris had been hoping to see Alistair, but it had been some woman Brigadier they were interviewing. She scrutinised the pictures carefully, hoping to catch a glimpse of her husband in the background, but there was no sign of Alistair and no mention of him. This new woman Brigadier was being very vague about casualties. The clip of a downed helicopter had Doris gripping the arms of her chair. She could see the identification numbers and was sure it was the same one Alistair had left in. She placed her hand over her mouth to stifle a sob and the view of the screen blurred as tears filled her eyes. 

The phone rang and she picked it up, desperate in case it was him, but terrified it would be someone else, someone passing on bad news. But she knew the army didn't notify widows over the phone. When her first husband had died, in Northern Ireland, it had been a Major and a Chaplin who had come to break the news.

“Doris, ... Doris..? Love are you there?” the anxious voice of her husband asked.

“Oh, God, Alistair...! I thought... I'm sorry.. yes, yes I'm here. Just... Just getting ready for bed! I thought you would have called sooner!” She said trying not to let him hear the obvious relief in her voice, or hear how worried she had been.

“Yes, well, sorry about that Love! The communications have been a real shambles and once we had got them sorted I had every blasted two bit politician expecting an in depth analysis of the situation. I've only just got off the phone to Geneva. They are more insufferable then ever!” he muttered. 

He sounded tired, so she didn't push it.

“I saw the crashed helicopter, on the news! I was worried it was the one you were in!” she blurted out, she hadn't meant to say that, it had just come out unbidden.

She heard him clearing his throat and her knees went weak! She knew she’d been right, it had been his helicopter. 

“I wasn't in it when it blew up!” he reassured her. That was the literal truth, he had escaped from it ten seconds before it exploded, but Doris didn't need to know that! It would only upset her if she knew!

“Oh, good!” she said. Knowing that sounded so inadequate.

Alistair thought she didn't sound convinced.

“Have there been many, casualties?” she asked.

Again the catch in her voice, he noted.

“Some, far more then I'd like!” he said genuine regret in his voice! “But the problem is resolved and the clearing up will be someone else’s concern, not mine. That includes writing the condolence letters!”

“So when will you be coming home?” That sounded a lot more whining then she wanted it to. “You've still got those seedlings to plant out!” she reminded him to try and make it seem that she hadn't been too concerned.

He grinned, he wasn't fooled by her statement, but he did appreciate the effort she was making.

“I'm leaving in the morning, Brigadier Bambera, insists this is her show not mine!” he said with a hint of amusement in his voice. “So I'm going to leave her with all the fun of the clear up and the paper work!”

Doris smiled to herself, obviously the young woman hadn't appreciated his help and had let him know it. So now he was getting his own back by leaving her with the mundane part of the work!

“An old friend will be driving me back. I've asked him and his companion to stay over for a few nights!” He hoped she wouldn't be too upset about guests at short notice. “Oh, and Winifred, Anceyln and Shou Yuing will probably be joining us for the weekend!”

Doris didn't say anything.

“You don't mind, do you?” he asked rather worriedly. “I really would like you to meet the Doctor!”

Doris had hoped to have him to herself for a while, but she would cheerfully welcome the whole of the UK army to the house if it meant he was coming home safe.

“No of course not Love, you know your friends are always welcome!”

She heard his sigh of relief!

“Thank you!” he said with feeling. 

The was someone talking to him. 

“Sorry got to go, there's a queue for the phone, and I've already had more then my fair share of time on it!”

“Good Night Alistair, sleep well! I Love you!” she said with feeling.

She heard his rather embarrassed throat clearing and a ghost of a smile crossed her face, someone else must be within earshot of him. She was surprised when he said.

“I love you too dear, sleep well!”

Doris put the phone down then sank into the chair. He was safe, he'd been there in an advisory capacity. She should have known, he was 66 years old, of course he was too old to be leading troops into battle or fighting monsters face to face, they just needed his experience. She had been silly to get herself in such a state. 

All the same she couldn't stop the tears of relief knowing he was safe! And tomorrow he would be home and she would have him back were he belonged, with her. 

She thought about the rest of his news he was bringing a couple of guests and they would be having some sort of house party at the weekend. She had better get things sorted!


End file.
